22 August, 2006

Two French novels

Both quite short. Philippe Claudel's Grey souls is a murder story set in Eastern France towards the end of the First World War - grey, atmospheric, sad and full of deaths. Very French. [46]

And Eliette Abécassis's short novel La répudiée, about a Jewish Orthodox woman in Jerusalem whose husband 'repudiates' her, under Jewish law, when she hasn't produced an heir for him. One of those novels you read to find out about a way of life rather than for the literary experience. [47]